


A hint of sugar, the notion of spice

by Alecto



Series: Sweetness worth savoring [2]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Drunken Shenanigans, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Kissing, M/M, Party, Post-Canon, Vandalism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:21:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25158427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alecto/pseuds/Alecto
Summary: It started as an evening of light but justified vandalism and unexpected camaraderie.A direct sequel toI put the bitter in bittersweet
Relationships: Jounouchi Katsuya | Joey Wheeler/Kaiba Seto
Series: Sweetness worth savoring [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1822534
Comments: 28
Kudos: 83





	A hint of sugar, the notion of spice

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn't resist writing a follow-up to that drabble. The scene would not leave me like a woman possessed.

When Kaiba agreed to engage in light vandalism, he didn't know he'd also signed up for a trip down memory lane. Jounouchi chattered ceaselessly, energetically, and sometimes belligerently while recounting all the sins Pegasus had committed against him and his friends over the years. All while swiping anything that looked valuable and wasn't bolted down. He reminded Kaiba of an overly aggressive magpie, flitting from room to room and collecting the shiniest bauble that caught his eye. 

Kaiba's own "stash" was sadly lacking in comparison, consisting mainly of a now half-drunken bottle of 1990 Chambertin Grand Cru pinched from the wine cellar. Pegasus may be a lunatic, but he knew his wines. That one bottle was probably worth more than everything Jounouchi stole combined.

He was also learning more about Jounouchi than he had in years. Like how he didn't drink after he turned down Kaiba's rather generous offer to share his alcoholic prize. Or how Jounouchi had illegally entered the Duelist Kingdom tournament so he could win the prize money to fund his sister's operation. Actually, he might have already known the latter. Mokuba may have once mentioned in passing that she had nearly gone blind.

Truthfully, Kaiba struggled to even remember her name.

"You're really here all by yourself? Where's Mokuba?" asked Jounouchi as he snatched and swung a silver candelabra over one shoulder.

"If only I could have followed his example and blown off this farce," he said embittered. But someone had to attend as a representative of KC's interests, especially with the way von Schroeder, the snake, had been sniffing around Pegasus all night. "Shouldn't you be with Yuugi?"

"Yuugi's busy holding court as the King of Games. Gotta entertain myself." Jounouchi shrugged easily.

But that didn't explain why he'd chosen to pass the evening with Kaiba of all people. 

They barged into the next room, a dark and unused dining hall. The crystal chandelier overhead glimmered in the light flooding through the bay of French windows facing east. Jounouchi made a beeline to the closest window, deposited his hoard on a nearby console table, and flung open a window. He hefted the candelabra in one hand before adopting an exaggerated pitcher's form and throwing. The candelabra didn't make it very far in the air before crashing with a clatter to the stone walkway below.

"That's for serving us eyeball soup," he declared.

With a snort, Kaiba crossed the room with one hand loosely wrapped around the neck of his stolen bottle. As he came to Jounouchi's side, he took another sip, savoring the tannin and spices and taste of plums and cherries on his tongue.

Jounouchi picked up something else from the pile and offered it to him. It was a small crystalline statute or paperweight. Kaiba turned it over in his hand, taking a moment to admire the craftsmanship before hurling it out the window with all his strength.

It exploded across the courtyard in a shower of twinkling shards. 

Jounouchi whooped and laughed. "That's the spirit!"

Kaiba alternated between drinking and throwing Pegasus' belonging as a tide of what? Joy? Giddiness? Whatever it was felt like something light and effervescent bubbling inside him. They went through Jounouchi's stash all too quickly, trading jabs and passing judgment on each other's ability to fling random objects.

Finally, Jounouchi's hand grasped empty air, causing him to swear. "Dammit, all out!"

He groped blindly across the surface of the table. His head swiveled wildly around the room, trying to locate something nearby with which they could continue their illicit activities. For some reason, he focused on Kaiba. Before Kaiba could warn Jounouchi against trying to defenestrate him, the blond tore the bottle out of his grip and chucked it out the window to join the rest.

"Hey! I wasn't done with that!" Kaiba snarled. The bottle seemed to perform slow-motion cartwheels in the air, spraying red droplets like falling rain. 

"You don't need anymore. You're already drunk!" argued Jounouchi.

"Am not!" He straightened as if to prove a point.

Without warning, Jounouchi canted forward, cupping his cheeks with calloused palms. Kaiba's throat ran as dry as the desert. Jounouchi was close. Too close. Close enough to see the dark amber of his irises, the thin scar running across the ridge of one cheekbone, and the pink sauce still adorning the corner of his mouth. He gaped wide-eyed at the other man, frozen for fear of what might happen or what he might do if he loosened his control on any single muscle.

"Oh, you are so definitely drunk, Kaiba," muttered Jounouchi, warm breath puffing across his chin.

The sound of shattering glass and an alarmed shout broke the spell.

"Who did that?" bellowed someone from the courtyard beneath them.

"Oh shit!" exclaimed Jounouchi, pulling away and dropping his hands, one of which found a new home with one of Kaiba's and he intertwined their fingers as easily (and as difficult) as breathing. Then they were running across the room and out the door—the ornate walls and furnishing blurring around them as they fled the scene of their oh-so-petty crime.

He doubted Jounouchi knew where they were going any more than he did. They'd already wandered so far from the party in the ballroom. Despite its ostentatious dressing, Pegasus' castle was a castle. Its interior layouts were built to bewilder and baffle any invaders that made it past the outer walls. 

Why were they even running? No one was going to catch them. And what could Pegasus do if he found out and caught them? Lecture them? He certainly couldn't steal their souls anymore.

By the time they finally stopped, Kaiba was sure they were lost. 

"Fuck, didn't mean to come back here," groaned Jounouchi. 

Kaiba lifted his head, finally beating back the wave of nausea from their escape to take in their surroundings. For an instant, he thought they'd found their way to another balcony, but they weren't outside despite how dark it was. Moonlight spilled through a small rose window high near the roof, which cut and bisected the light into patterned rays. 

Kaiba approached the balustrade. His stomach dropped as soon as he peered over the edge. Despite wishing he didn't remember, Kaiba had been here before. He'd been here more than once.

Moonlight illuminated the dueling arena suspended over a seemingly bottomless pit. How long had it been since the thing had last been turned on?

Jounouchi muttered something unintelligible, kicking his heel and absolutely scuffing his dress shoes in the process. 

"What? Not eager to relive your youthful glory?" asked Kaiba snidely. His fingers twitched. He wished he still had his bottle of wine or something else to hold—anything to distract from the uncomfortable sensation crawling across his skin. 

A long beat of silence stretched between them before Jounouchi spoke again. "You're taking this well."

Kaiba shrugged, craning his neck and head to look back at his companion. His shoulders rolled backward without tension, lubricated by wine and wanton property destruction. "It's in the past. After all, we're business partners now," he said with a wide vicious smile that felt carved into his face with a knife.

As Jounouchi stared, his expression became unreadable. It was a strange look on his face, almost as mismatched as his black-tie attire (although it was better fitted than Kaiba would have otherwise anticipated). 

Kaiba turned back to the dueling arena. "I don't suppose we could destroy _that_?" he mused. "It's obsolete technology."

"Don't you still have dueling arenas in some of your parks?" asked Jounouchi.

He scoffed. "Yes, but they're not running the first-generation graphics and rendering engine. That thing's practically stuck in the technological Stone Age."

Jounouchi was doing it again, gauging and measuring Kaiba against some unknown metric. Kaiba teetered on the edge of lashing out when Jounouchi finally nodded and said, "Okay, let see if we can find the controls around here. There's gotta be something we can poke at there."

With a goal—a purpose in mind, Kaiba's nerves calmed marginally. For a while, they hunted fruitlessly through the dark, traipsing up and down the same three corridors in search of a control room or an access panel. In the end, they couldn't find either. Instead, they stumbled onto a second, smaller balcony opposite the one they first started on. This must have been Pegasus' private viewing box because why else was there be a throne facing forward? 

Jounouchi knelt next to the throne, running his hands up and down its side. "Nothing here either," he sighed.

Kaiba snorted. What did the idiot expect to find? The button for a hidden trapdoor? Pegasus was a loon, but he wasn't a cartoon villain.

He sauntered over to the gaudy set piece (because that was all it was). Pegasus didn't cheap out on its construction, though. The throne was a heavy and sturdy thing that wasn't likely to budge even if he and Jounouchi used their collective strength. He rounded to the front of it, considered the detailing and engraving fanned across the head and armrests, and lowered himself into the cushioned seat. 

A faint snicker sounded above him.

"What?" he threw a sharp look at his companion.

Jounouchi held his hand over his mouth but failed to cover his laughing eyes. "Nothing. You just look right at home there."

"Naturally." 

He reclined in the throne, propping one arm on the armrest opposite Jounouchi and pressing his cheek to his fist. He regarded the man draped over the side of the furniture like a misbehaving schoolchild. Jounouchi dangled his arms and hooked his chin on the ridge as he grinned at Kaiba. The posture, effortlessly casual and languid, made his arms appear impossibly long.

After locking eyes, Jounouchi grabbed his throat and made a choking noise. "There. That was the sound of your ego crowding all the air outta the room," he explained with a manic grin.

Kaiba smirked and sank deeper into the seat, throwing out his legs before crossing one over the other. Jounouchi's gaze followed the motion on instinct, eyes tracing the long, lean muscles of his legs before snapping back to his face. It was hard to tell in this lighting, but he appeared a tad flushed. It made sense for Kaiba to feel that way because he'd drunk almost a full bottle of wine in record time by himself. But Jounouchi? He wouldn't have touched a drop of alcohol if he was really a teetotaler as claimed.

Kaiba reflexively loosened his bow tie and unfastened the top two buttons of his shirt. There, that was better. 

Jounouchi cleared his throat not once, but twice. "Think we should head back to the rest of the party?"

He hummed softly. He felt surprisingly comfortable where he sat despite the room and its history. It could be because he was trespassing on Pegasus' private balcony or merely the sensation of reigning above that most wretched dueling arena. His eyes slid shut. His mission to dismantle the disgraced machine now evaporated like smoke.

"Do as you please," he replied several beats later.

Jounouchi laughed softly, sounding even closer than before. "Kinda been doing that all night long. No point in stopping now."

"How very you," he drawled, popping open one eyelid to find the other man bent over him, a hand grasping each arm of the throne and caging him where he sat. 

Once again, Kaiba was entranced by the small details of Jounouchi's face: the eyes, the razor-thin scar, and his full lips. The breathless moment hung between them, suspended on a gossamer thread swaying wildly in the wind, threatening to break. Jounouchi visibly screwed up his courage and lowered his head until their lips inevitably met in a foregone conclusion.

By the time his mind caught up with what his body was experiencing, Jounouchi had pulled away. 

The blond licked his lips nervously before pleading, "Oh my god, please don't punch me. Or toss me over the edge."

With a shaky hand, Kaiba reached under Jounouchi's unbuttoned tuxedo jacket and yanked him by a suspender strap. 

Jounouchi squawked before falling forward into his lap. "Dude—"

Kaiba cupped the back of his neck with his other hand and brought their mouths together once more. Jounouchi inhaled sharply, tensed, and then moved both hands to clasp Kaiba's shoulders instead. They shifted until they collectively found the best position: his thighs bracketed between Jounouchi's knees as Jounouchi rose above him. 

The first few moments saw them kissing slowly and almost hesitantly, their mouths closed as they mapped the unfamiliar territory of each other's lips and chests and shoulders and cheeks. Cautiously, one of Kaiba's hands drifted until it came to rest on the crest of Jounouchi's hip, before daring to draw him in until they touched chest to chest. The action emboldened Jounouchi, who nipped at his bottom lip in response. Remembering the sauce on Jounouchi's face, Kaiba tilted his head ever so slightly and licked the spot clean. 

"Shit," Jounouchi muttered, shivering in his arms.

Before Kaiba could unleash whatever witty repartee already loaded into his tongue, Jounouchi cradled his face much as he did earlier. Except this time, he was even closer, and there was no mistaking his intention. Kaiba met him halfway, head spinning and falling ever deeper together in a tailspin. Teeth caught his lower lip and dragged the flesh low in an unspoken request to open his mouth. A thrill shot down his spine. Kaiba acquiesced. 

He didn't have much experience when it came to kissing, open-mouthed or otherwise. He couldn't deny there was a flash of dissonance when he recognized that was Jounouchi's tongue in his mouth. That his would-be rival of years was eagerly and wetly running the tip down the center of his tongue. Jounouchi tasted like his pilfered hor d'oeuvres, fruity with the lingering kick of cayenne peppers. He wondered if Jounouchi could sample the wine's bouquet on his breath and tongue in turn. 

Funny, he hadn't felt drunk until this very moment. And never had he felt more terrifying lucid and completely out of control at the same time. 

They kissed for seemingly hours, periodically breaking apart for a gasp of air or a pant before coming back together again like crashing waves. Jounouchi let one hand drift from his face to his neck to his chest, dragging his blunted nails down his sternum to trace his abs. Kaiba's skin prickled under his starched shirt. Drawing Jounouchi flush to his lap, Kaiba yanked the blond's shirt free from where it was tucked into his trousers to palm the feverish skin beneath. Jounouchi rutted against him. Surprise jolted through him and inspiring the maddening need to get even closer. Without clothes. Skin to skin.

But as he shifted his position to buck into the man above him, one foot met what felt like a loose tile. It depressed under his weight.

Bang!

Jounouchi tore his head away, but Kaiba's grip kept him anchored in his lap. They looked around for the source of the noise, thinking that maybe they'd been caught red-handed. But there was no one.

Jounouchi's whole body started shaking with suppressed laughter. "Damn, I forgot about that."

At Kaiba's confused expression, he pointed to the floor to the throne's right. It was an open trapdoor, an honest-to-god trapdoor out of Pegasus' ridiculous cartoons. 

Kaiba slammed his head against the chair-back and groaned. "You have got to be kidding me."

Jounouchi chuckled, curling his fingers around the side of Kaiba's neck before nuzzling his cheek affectionately. "No joke. I've seen Pegasus actually use it. So, thanks for not chucking me down that thing."

He studied Jounouchi's face in profile, admiring the strong cut of his jawline. Mindlessly, he reached up and thumbed the scar he kept coming back to again and again. "That would be a waste."

Jounouchi beamed. The smile warmed Kaiba more than he would admit. "Whaddaya say we take this somewhere requiring less death-defying stunts?"

Another invitation. Like before, Kaiba could take it or leave it. The entire evening could end without nothing more than a hangover in the morning to serve as a memento. Jounouchi could fade into the background of Kaiba's life again, half-remembered until they passed each other on the pro circuit.

He wasn't ready to end it yet.

"Lead the way."

With hands intertwined, Jounouchi pulled him to his feet, and they danced around the trapdoor, still tipsy on each other's presence. If there was anything Pegasus' castle appeared to have in abundance, it was rooms. The next thing they destroyed was entirely by accident as they fumbled through the dark of a guestroom. Kaiba caught a glimpse of a broken Tiffany lamp on the carpet before he was pushed onto the bed. The colored glass shards were nowhere as vivid as the glow of Jounouchi's hair or his eyes.

The night was absolutely worth the $17,000 USD bill that Pegasus would invoice him a week later.


End file.
